Early Life | Thomas Alva Edison ( 1847-1931)
“To increase the sale of his papers, he telegraphed the headings of the war news to the stations in advance of the trains and placarded them to tempt the passengers. Ere long he conceived the plan of publishing a newspaper of his own. Having bought a quantity of old type at the office of the Detroit Free Press he installed it in a springless car, or ‘caboose' of the train meant for a smoking-room, but too uninviting to be much used by the passengers. Here he set the type and printed a small sheet about a foot square by pressing it with his hand.”
Early Life | Fleeming Jenkins (1833 -1885)
“Jenkin was fortunate in having an excellent education. His mother took him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught him drawing among other things, and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors. He went to school at Jedburgh, and afterwards to the Edinburgh Academy, where he carried off many prizes. Among his schoolfellows were Clerk Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait, the friends of his mature life.”
Early Life | Charles William Siemens (1823-1883)
“As a child William was sensitive and affectionate, the baby of the family, liking to roam the woods and fields by himself, and curious to observe, but not otherwise giving any signs of the engineer. He received his education at a commercial academy in Liibeck, the Industrial School at Magdeburg (city of the memorable burgomaster, Otto yon Guericke), and at the University of Gottingen, which he entered in 1841, while in his eighteenth year.”
Early Life | William Thomson (1824-1907)
“The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination, and soon engrossed all the teeming faculties of his mind. At the age of seventeen, when ordinary lads are fond of games, and the cleverer sort are content to learn without attempting to originate, young Thomson had begun to make investigations.”
Early Life | Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
“At the age of four Samuel was sent to an infant school kept by an old lady, who being lame, was unable to leave her chair, but carried her authority to the remotest parts of her dominion by the help of a long rattan. Samuel, like the rest, had felt the sudden apparition of this monitor. Having scratched a portrait of the dame upon a chest of drawers with the point of a pin, he was called out and summarily punished.”
Early Life | Charles Wheatstone ( 1802-1875)
“One day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he coveted a volume on the discoveries of Volta in electricity, but not having the price, he saved his pennies and secured the volume. It was written in French, and so he was obliged to save again, till he could buy a dictionary. Then he began to read the volume, and, with the help of his elder brother, William, to repeat the experiments described in it.”
An astronomer's wife | The biography of Angeline Hall by her son
“Every time I go away from home, among strangers, I feel my need of you. My friends here, even my sisters, seem cold and distant when compared with you. O there is no one like the dear one who nestles in our hearts and loves us always.”
On parental support | Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)
The excerpt comes from an Introduction to the Elements of Algebra written by Euler (1707 -1783) when he already blind. The book of unsurpassable clarity it can be used as an introduction to algebra nowadays just as it was more than two centuries ago. For an extended read exploring the book I would direct you to “A tale of two curricula: Euler's algebra text book” by Chris Sangwin
Early Life | Childhood memories | Alfred Russel Wallace
“What makes this deficiency the more curious is that, during the very same period at which I cannot recall the personal appearance of the individuals with whom my life was most closely associated, I can recall all the main features and many of the details of my outdoor, and, to a less degree, of my in- door, surroundings.”